Gensokyo Railway Series 16 (More Railway Incidents)
by Pergold
Summary: As the case between two magicians and an akuryou come to a head. The engines of Gensokyo have their own problems to attend to, from hot axle boxes to ruined breakfasts, here are some more railway incidents.
1. Prologue

Once again, the courtroom wasn't being used to judge the dead, well it still is, since Mima was technically a spirit, but the matter wasn't about who goes to heaven or not. Instead it was about how Mima drugged Marisa twice and left her only to be found beaten up.

"But I didn't beat her up!" pleaded Mima.

"But you have drugged her to sleep twice." said Eiki.

"I did do that."

"Ah-hah! So you admit!"

"No, I only drugged her. So I could have my way with her!"

The courtroom went silent. Minutes passed before someone had said something.

"You rapist!" the voice was Alice's.

"But I didn't beat her up! I heard and saw some humans beat her up!" Mima was trying her best to explain.

"They had weapons! From what I heard, they just left them there!"

"I believe you about how the weapons were there and they are still being tested. But I think you wanted to have variety in how you could harm poor Marisa." Eiki said.

The two argued at each other until Komachi came in with one of the witnesses, it was the Mayohiga stationmaster! Komachi also had a paper with the results of the information the evidence had. The evidence was made up of the ersatz weapons, and a bottle of tablets that Mima had been using on Marisa.

Before Eiki would let the stationmaster testify. She looked at the paper.

"Komachi's kanji is as good as her work ethic, sloppy!" she thought to herself.

"I guess you were right all along. But I'm not admitting that I was wrong!" Eiki said aloud.

The stationmaster testified and did say that she spotted some brisk movements and the rattling of bushes and metal objects. This made Mima's case more plausible, but this did not justify what Mima was _doing_ to Marisa. But the door opened and beside Reimu and Sanae, were a group of humans. The two mikos explained that they had a history of beating up magicians in revenge of the time a magician had made a mustard gas explosion.

Eiki grinned, "So I'll have justice either way."

Soon it was time for Eiki to make her judgments, she sentenced the group of humans to be with Yukari, so they wouldn't be _relevant_ anymore. Mima was sentenced to make up compensation to Marisa and Alice and not to see Marisa unless supervised.


	2. Kiyoshi, Akemi, and their Fruitful Day

One day, Akemi was waiting at the Human Village yards when Kiyoshi arrived with some trucks.

"Kiyoshi, every engine has to come on time. Your late." said Akemi.

"Yeah, yeah, that purple paint must make you bossy!" retorted Kiyoshi.

"I'll never!"

It is market day in the Human Village and from what gardens and farms alongside the Sanzu River, the tugboats bring in barges of produce to be shipped to the Human Village. Akemi arrived and picked up a train of the fresh comestibles and ran off back onto the mainline. He stopped at a signal, when he saw Ichihiro.

"I'm pulling a market train, full of fruits! Probably because, I'm a great engine." Akemi said.

"Its probably because you _are_ one." replied Ichihiro.

"I'm what?"

"A fruit!" explained Ichihiro.

Akemi huffed and went away.

"I hope Hina doesn't do anything to Akemi." said Ichihiro, predicting some misfortune.

Kiyoshi was busy shunting in the yard when the Human Village stationmaster requested to see his driver. After a small conversation, his driver went up front.

"Looks like Akemi's brakes are jammed, we're going to have push him." said Kiyoshi's driver.

Akemi's injector had failed and when he pulled the train, he got slower and slower. Now he's stranded on the mainline. Kiyoshi went up to the back of Akemi's train. Kiyoshi laughed and began to tease him.

"Vegetating on the line. How fruity of you!" said Kiyoshi, making bad produce puns.

"Can you take the trucks?" said Akemi's driver.

"Sure." replied Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi whatever trucks he could carry and left Akemi to be fetched by a bigger engine. Kiyoshi took the trucks to the Human Village, but a set of points had failed and he was diverted into a siding, he was in a hurry and now paying attention, he didn't notice what was going on until he crashed in the back of a van of fruits. The van's was partially destroyed and Kiyoshi was covered in the flesh of some melons he had smashed apart, his whole front was covered. The Scarlet Controller caught wind of what had happened, she went to talk to Kiyoshi.

"I know the points failing wasn't your fault, but I run a railway, not a jam factory!" she said.

The sheds were unusually quiet that night. That is until Ichihiro said something that irked Kiyoshi and Akemi.

"We are all very fruitful engines, even when things do go wrong."

The shed stayed rightfully silent after that.


	3. Kenta's Runaway

Between cargo being picked from the harbor, the workshops in Kappa Valley, and some of the artisans in Mayohiga and in the Human Village, the engine have plenty of goods to move about in Gensokyo. One day Kenta was pulling a slow goods train, it was mostly raw materials for the kappas to use. He lugged stone, wood, and scrap metal.

He was at Mayohiga, picking up his last load when Hachirou arrived.

"That looks really heavy Kenta." he said.

"I know and I have to lug this up Hiroto's Hill." Kenta replied.

"I think you might need a backing engine."

"I'll manage, Hachirou."

Finally his train was fully loaded and he set off to Hiroto's Hill, he reached the foot of the hill at top speed. He climbed to the top of the hill, but because Hina Kagiyama, goddess of misfortune, wanted to interfere or just because of improper maintenance, a coupling snapped. Kenta was already at the summit so the runaway train gained enough inertia with its weight. It sped down the hill.

"Kenta! You lost your train!" cried his driver.

"Crap! We were going so nicely too."

"We need to go to the next signalbox!"

A signalwoman at the bottom of the hill saw the runaway and phoned a warning down the line. The runaway freight train roared down the mainline, Hiroto was pulling the express, when the signal changed.

"I thought we the right of way!" said Hiroto, braking at almost full speed.

He saw a brake van running straight towards him. Hiroto shut his eyes. The signalwoman switched the points and the train went onto the next line. Hiroto nearly missed by a few inches, he was relieved. But the goods train thundered down the line, the train was switched onto a another line as it passed the next signalbox. However, the next signalbox was the one to determine if the runaway would go to the Human Village or straight towards the Hakurei Shrine. The signalwoman had a plan, she knew about a set of trap points on the Eientei branch line. So she set it to keep on the mainline, but the points were jammed and the train run towards the Human Village.

Keine Kamishirasawa was notified and she evacuated the passengers in the station. Onlookers watched with interest. The signalwoman by the yards, was swapping around points, hands darting across levers like greased lightning. The runaway ran past the signalbox and was switched onto a disused siding, the buffers lead into a muddy ditch. The runaway careened down the yard and onto the siding, it smashed past the buffers and crashed into the ditch, the last three trucks spilling cargo as they jumped the line. The guard braced for impact and wasn't too badly injured. But the crisis was over.

The breakdown train was ordered and the mess was picked up, but service was severely disrupted. Kenta went back to pick up the unhurt trucks and brought them to the Kappa Valley, like he was supposed to. That night, the engines talked about the delays in schedule.

"Reimu yelled at me for being late and I almost got run into by that goods train!" complained Hiroto.

"Almost all my trains got canceled!" put in Akemi.

"It wasn't Kenta's fault, that coupling on his train should have been checked better. Besides, with the speed and weight, I'm surprised that the axles didn't go hot and caused a fire!" said Hachirou.

The engines decided that things could have been worse, like if the train crashed into the station. So everyone forgave Kenta.


	4. Hot Box

On most railways in the world, the axles on pieces of rolling stock, especially older ones, had a plain bearing and is lubricated by a special box. This is usually called a Journal bearing. But sometimes, either due to failure of the equipment or due to friction, the box would run hot and would risk running the chance of starting a fire. Due to the relatively new nature of the trucks, the chances of a hot box were slim. That is until one day when Akemi had to pull a freight train from the Sanzu Harbor.

"Stupid tugs made me late!" said Akemi.

His train was running late and he had to make up for lost time.

"Go steady! Your going too fast!" said his firewoman.

"Don't mind him, Akane. I'll manage the regulator." replied the driver.

Akemi approached a signal and had to brake hard, he skidded across the rails for a few feet before stopping. Ahiru soon passed by Akemi with a passenger train. But Ahiru noticed some thin wisps of smoke coming from one of the trucks.

"Akemi!" called out Ahiru.

"One of your trucks are running hot!"

Akemi didn't hear Ahiru and was too busy thinking of his timetable to listen. He went down the mainline towards Mayohiga. The box went hotter still, by the time he stopped by the signalbox. Hiroto passed by with the express heading to the Hakurei Shrine. Hiroto smelled smoke and saw what was now a thickening pillar of black smoke.

"Driver! We need to stop at the next signalbox and tell them that Akemi's train is on fire." said Hiroto.

"Dully noted." replied his driver.

Akemi went farther out, but before he could get switched onto the Mayohiga extension. The train got heavy.

"That must be the brake van, what business does the guard have in me being more late!" thought Akemi.

But guard came to him and his crew in fit of coughing.

"The train's on fire!" gasped the guard.

"I'll tell the next signalbox that we need help." said the driver.

Before Akemi could ask what was going on, he smelled smoke.

"Oh no." said Akemi, realizing what was happening.

He went so long with the axle box so hot, that it had caught fire and had spread to the truck in front of it. The fire slowly spread as time slowly crawled by. But because Hiroto told the signalwoman ahead of him about the train; help quickly arrived. Shiro brought some tankers full of water and whatever humans and youkai came to help. The fire had taken up three trucks and using buckets, they slowly doused the flames. The guard used sand from the brake van to help put out the fire. But without a hose, the fire didn't go out until that evening.

The Scarlet Controller came out to see how bad things were, it was nearly dark enough for her not having to need a parasol to keep her out of the sun. Akemi's crew told her what had happened and she calculated her response.

"Akemi! If you stopped to let your crew check the um...what was it?"

"Axle box sir." said the driver.

"Axle box, whatever. If you did that, you wouldn't have to fight your fire!"

"Sorry sir." said Akemi.

"You wrecked perfectly good trucks. Next time, care more for your safety than the rigors of our schedule."

The next day, Nitori was told to design some railway fire fighting equipment. What she made was a water tank on a flatbed, with special pressurized hose, there's even a water cannon on the end of it if the fire ever got to be _that_ bad. Now the railway could breath easy, now that some more safety measures were in place. Even if that did irk out Yukari because of her 'conflict of interest'.


	5. Ichihiro Comes to Breakfast

Ichihiro was pulling into the big station, he pulled his usual return train from Eientei, his smooth running caught the attention of his driver.

"You run so well, you could move just by yourself!"

Ichihiro did not realize that his driver was joking and became conceited.

"My driver says I don't need her!" he said.

" _yakamashii jakamashi~!_ " replied Ahiru.

"You need your driver to well...drive you! You can't move without her."

"So?!"

"I think what Ahiru is trying to say is, that having a driver is a must." said Kiyoshi.

The two engines' words fell on deaf ears as Ichihiro was conceited still. He spent the night at the Human Village yards with the two other tank engines. The next morning, the firelighter came and lit the fires inside the engines' fireboxes. Ichihiro woke up feeling his boiler warm up.

"I'll show them, I'll move by myself and I'll whistle and at them and blow steam at them to show that I'm right."

Then, he started to move. He didn't know that the firelighter was a human and was careless enough to touch his controls, Ichihiro didn't know about this. He tried to whistle and wheesh steam at them, but he couldn't!

"Help!" he cried.

He couldn't stop! Soon he gained some speed and was rolling down the yard. At the end of one of the sidings was a house, the stationmaster had recently moved there. Ichihiro soon noticed he was going straight towards the house. He had no driver to brake and whistle a warning. He braced himself for the crash and shut his eyes. The stationmaster and his wife were about to have breakfast.

The house rocked and shook as Ichihiro crashed through the buffer across several feet of dirt and into the house. Shattered plaster and splintered wood were everywhere. The stationmaster and his wife were furious.

"Look at what you did to our breakfast!" his wife raged.

"Do you know how long it took to get this perfect! Now I'll have to make some more!"

She pounded the wall in frustration and more plaster and roofing tiles fell on him. Ichihiro was miserable.

Workmen laid temporary rails through the yard and Hachirou was coupled to Ichihiro using long chains.

"Don't worry Ichihiro! I'll have you out within the minute."

Hachirou pulled Ichihiro back onto the rails. Ichihiro's front was badly damaged, his buffers were bent in different directions. When Ichihiro was pulled back to where he started, the Scarlet Controller was waiting for him.

"Your in a lot of trouble you _baka_! Once you're sent to the works, you'll be there for a very very _very long time!_ " she said.

Ichihiro felt guilty and looked down at his busted buffer beam.

"When you're away, your work will be covered by a diesel railcar."

"A d-d-d-diesel, sir?" Ichihiro coughed out some plaster dust.

"Yes. Diesels always stay in their shed until they are wanted and they _never_ go gallivanting off to breakfast in human houses." finished the Scarlet Controller.

Those words resonated deeply within Ichihiro's self.


	6. Epilogue

The court had just been adjourned and even though Mima had been absolved of beating up Marisa, but she still was guilt of having _her way_ with Marisa without her consent. So she was sent to do hard labor in mining the red china clay that comes from hell. She has heading out to start work when Marisa and Alice walked up to her.

Mima took one glance at Alice, just long enough to gauge her body language and then looked at Marisa.

"I'm sorry Marisa for drugging you and doing things to you." she said.

But Marisa was unusually chipper about the whole incident.

"If you wanted too, you could have just asked!" replied Marisa.

This caught both Alice and Mima off by surprise.

"WHAT?!" yelled Alice.

"I could've just, w-w-what?" said Mima in complete shock.

Marisa then began to explain why.

"If you just asked, we could have done it. Its not the first time I 'two-timed' Alice."

"You did WHAT on me!" Alice raged.

"I had a few flings with Patchouli and that one time me and Reimu got really drunk and Yukari watched-"

Marisa was interrupted by a very very angry Alice. She walked off, he was yelling the whole way down.

"I'LL SHOW THAT _YATSU_ PATCHOULI! AND THAT GODFORSAKEN REIMU!" she screeched.

This caught the attention of Eiki and Komachi.

"What's her deal?" asked Komachi.

"Alice is going to have a strong word with Patchouli and Reimu."answered Marisa.

"Should I interfere?"

"No, just let it run its course. I'll lecture her the moment she does anything drastic." Eiki said.

Mima walked off to start her sentence, bewildered by the previous events. She left the court shocked and remained shocked for the rest of the day.


End file.
